


Opportunity Never Dies

by TimeLadyoftheSith



Category: Doctor Who, NASA - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fix It, Mars Rover Opportunity, NASA, Pete’s World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 16:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17791163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeLadyoftheSith/pseuds/TimeLadyoftheSith
Summary: Rose finds the Doctor crying in the kitchen. She knows how to make him better.





	Opportunity Never Dies

Rose was tying her hair up in a loose knot as she stepped out of the bathroom. She was a tad bit miffed, because the Doctor had been hinting all day about breaking in the new shower all day via text while she was out on a field mission. He’d beat her home by an hour, and took one look at her muddy, sweaty, dirty uniform and said “You get the shower started. I’ll throw this in the oven.” As he began haphazardly covering the lasagna. His eyes and voice had held husky promise.   
  
So Rose had gone to the shower, stripping down and hurrying to wash up just enough so the rest of the hot water wouldn’t go to waste before they were finished. He didn’t come in. She’d called his name, gotten a “be right there!” Shout back. Then she’d waited, and waited, and the water went cold. So she’d gotten out, toweled off her hair, and opened the door expecting to see him in bed. It was empty. His keys were on his bedside table, so he was still home.    
  
She made her way downstairs, ready to give him a rather good tongue lashing about leaving her waiting, when the sound of soft sobs and sniffing reached her ears. “Doctor!” Rose dashed the last few steps, turning into the kitchen, and found her half human, half Time Lord Doctor sitting on the kitchen floor, clutching his mobile, and crying. “Doctor! What’s wrong?!”    
  
“She’s dead!” He croaked, looking up at her with nothing short of devastation. “She died all alone, Rose! She’s gone!” More fat tears leaked down his face, as Rose fell to her knees in panicked shock.    
  
“Who?! Doctor who?!”    
  
“Opportunity!” He gasped, looking down at his mobile. Rose was confused, until she looked at the screen, and saw an image of one of the Mars Rovers on the screen. Oh...oh.... Rose swallowed a giggle back. “Her last message was ‘My battery is low, and it’s getting dark.’ I can’t, Rose. I can’t...”   
  
“Oh Doctor.” Swallowing a giggle at her husband, Rose shifted to her bum and wrapped an arm around him. She pulled his head to her shoulder, stroking his arm and kissing his hair. “It’s okay. It was just her time.”    
  
“But she was all alone. She was on Mars, and there was nobody.” He hiccuped, touching the mobile screen and looking up at her with watery eyes. “She was brilliant. She shouldn’t have died alone.”    
  
“I have an idea.” Rose kissed his hair again before standing and holding out her hand. He blinked at her once, taking her fingers. She pulled him to his feet and lead him to the stairs. When she opened the attic door, approaching the lonely armoire in the corner, she pulled out a key.    
  
*****   
  
The Doctor stared out at the vast expanses of the Martian landscape, as Rose strode onto the surface in her protective suit, pulling a cart of supplies. He followed her, approaching the now dormant Rover that sat forlornly in the red wasteland. His heart swelled as she began pulling out tools, and then he hurried to his wife’s side. She was already elbow deep in her work.   
  
Together, they repaired her. Replacing damaged, worn, and missing pieces. He took one of the spare emergency power cells from the TARDIS as Rose held it out. With a little whir and tap of his sonic, Opportunity hummed to life again. “There we go.” He smiled, watching as the Rover’s parts began moving.    
  
“NASA’s probably losing their minds right now.” Rose laughed, as she hugged him tightly, the distant sun’s light gleaming off her mask. He hugged her back, his single heart swelling as Opportunity began moving on the path she had frozen on.   
  
“Thank you, Rose.” The Doctor didn’t know why the simple news had affected him so deeply, but it had. He was grateful, as always, that Rose had just known how to make him feel better. She never questioned, never judged, just always loved him and made him better.    
  
“The lasagna’s gonna burn.” She hummed, pulling back to grab the handle of the cart. The Doctor let her lead the way back to their TARDIS, which had decided to disguise itself as a massive boulder. As she touched the surface, a gap appeared, but Rose didn’t go in.    
  
“What?” The Doctor looked down at Rose, who was staring into the console room.    
  
“Think we can make a trip to sixty three and break the Chameleon Circuit?” She queried.   
  
“And be back before the lasagna burns.” This earned him a laugh, and the Doctor cast one last look back at Opportunity, smiling.


End file.
